So much for a spotless record.

Mordecai had kept some pride on not having been admitted to St Mungo's for anything. There was no reason to it outside of his own personal achievements, something he didn't call attention to or ever mentioned it to anyone, not even his wife. That he was lying in a hospital bed wasn't even a blow to his ego - all good things eventually came to an end, and he'd made his peace with that a few hours into being admitted.

He disliked not being able to discuss his thoughts with his colleagues. Oh, they had visited him to make sure he was alright and talk to him about what had happened, but it wasn't quite the same. There was no privacy here to talk about the attack in the way he wanted. Well, it would have to wait then. Mordecai did consider himself a workaholic but he didn't consider himself a fool - there would be no work done if he didn't rest adequately for his leg to heal as best as it could.

That was also an important matter. He couldn't shake the memory of seeing the expressions of his wife and son when they finally got to his side. Fortunately for him his son's best friend[1] had managed to calm them down somewhat before the nurses allowed them to see him. He made a mental note to thank her himself, grateful for her timely help and support for his family.

Mordecai sighed softly and let himself settle against the pillow. The actual injury itself had been treated; the recovery was the issue, he'd heard, but they would not elaborate. All he could do now was entertain whoever came to see him, and he hoped it wasn't yet another journalist.

1.	Lyra Avery was present at Souldern.

"They, hm, they forcing you to rest up?"

Leon Halloran had time still until his shift today, and was dressed for it in the leather trench he often wore over his emerald jumper and slacks. He smiled slighty at the Head of Improper Use, who had gone and done a stupid thing by getting himself hurt. It always struck Leon as stupid when people put their lives on the line to protect the Statute.

Himself excluded, of course. A pretense was a pretense, long running as it might be.

"No harm done," the wizard spoke pointedly as he occupied a chair next to the ward bed. "At least not where it matters, among the no-maj. Though I cannot guarantee they will not be dreaming of wyrms and fairy tales."

Despite the cognitive dissonance of wanting a thing and acting against that very thing, Leon happened to be good at his job. He didn't have a choice. It would be suspicious if he wasn't.

"'Forcing' implies I am unwilling to rest," Mordecai stated plainly without hesitating. He looked up at the Head Obliviator, who was absolutely no stranger to Mordecai since his appointment in 2012. At some point nearly everyone in the Ministry would eventually find their way to the Improper Use of Magic Office, and if they somehow didn't his stickybeak deputy would eventually discuss them anyway.

Halloran however by way of being Head Obliviator played a crucial role in the upkeep of the Statute. He didn't need to 'get known' by the Office, as Sameera called it - it was part of the job.

"The magizoologists of Souldern would beg to differ on the lack of harm," he continued tactfully. "I understand their concerns as they went out of their way to explain later why the attack affected their work and was a threat to the muggles."

Mordecai raised his eyebrows. "But I gather you're not here to talk about them. Thank you for your work in the speedy obliviations. Here for a friendly visit, then?"

Ministry acquaintances had been dropping by in an attempt to discuss work. He'd redirected them to his deputy, who was Acting Head in his absence, but he knew not everyone saw Sameera the same way they saw him.

"No," Leon agreed that he wasn't here to discuss the magizoologists' concerns. "Not my division. Their competency will not go unremarked in my report, naturally."

He leaned his cane against the bedside table, and sat back comfortably. "I figured it was only right to see how you're getting on."

Hollingbury was one of many for him to keep his eye on at the Ministry. There was Kuester, too, but she was a department head and wasn't out on the field in the same way. No, no. It was the likes of Mordercai and the people of the Muggle Affairs Office, who were more likely to get in the way of his next move.

"They almost got away with it, huh?" Leon smiled dryly. "Not as close a call as the Halloween incident, granted, but you can't fault their tenacity."

He remembered Halloran in the midst of the chaos. It had been a surprise to see him until the news that the attack had caused dragons to take off high into the air reached him. Obliviators of particular skill had to be called to cover the entire town of Souldern. While the dragons had not managed to do any lasting damage before the magizoologists covered them up with glamour, the sight of them nonetheless had probably done more than enough.

"It could have been worse." Mordecai's gaze flickered slightly to the covers where the slight rise of the covers indicated the whereabouts of his legs. "I'll take what I can get. I'm more interested in the efficiency of the destruction of the barrier. I was in the blast zone directly but it crumbled from the bottom rather than the sides or top."

He raised a hand languidly. "It's always so premeditated with these fellows. Precise pinpoint strikes to barriers. Clearly planned routes. I feel we're dealing with an intellectual, if reckless, lot... I say, but they are words of a humble legislator, not an investigator. What are your thoughts on these perpetrators?"

I must be careful.

"You're right," he nodded slowly. "Of course the attacks have to be premeditated by nature, these are terrorists we are dealing with."

Leon took some pride in the efficiency so astutely observed by his colleague. There was something in it, a point to prove to their own supporters. As if to say: trust us because we know what we are doing. He interlaced his fingers over his legs and scowled in a way that would have put off anyone who didn't know or work with him.

"It isn't an impulsive ideology, I'm sure you realise?" Leon mused, testing the conversational waters. "Hate, now, hate is given to the impulsive and self-sacrificing. These folk are not motivated by hate, far as I can tell."

Hollingbury was a man of action yesterday but he was more well known to him as a man of words, laws, parchment.

"indeed, they are not motivated by hate." Mordecai's tone implied he already had figured that out for himself.

The affable expression on his face gave nothing of his feelings on Halloran's approach. He could feel the gentle prodding in the words, the tentative testing. it was too early to assume anything, but Mordecai was relying on not just gut instinct but experience going back two decades.

"No, it would be inaccurate to assume they are being driven by hostility," he continued. "They are driven by a love instead, to see unity and consequently strength in that unity. A noble pursuit."

Mordecai looked in the direction of his leg again, and then in the direction of the other beds, where he knew he was not the only one wounded in the attack.

"A rather self-serving love that ignores reality and lives above the clouds, posturing itself as the sky whilst doing nothing for the storms that rage below," he mused out loud. "A love so selfish that it will hurt others who disagree and call it benevolence and deliverance. One such tenet of terrorists, not pioneers."

He smiled ruefully, turning his head back to Halloran. "It seems so easy to pursue an ideal without thinking of others, don't you think? I wish I could live a misguided life so unburdened of such weight."

He let the older wizard perform his little spiel, as was Hollingbury's way. Merlin knew you couldn't get a concise word out of the man and Leon thought it convenient, being taciturn himself, when someone else carried the burden of conversation.

Noble pursuit? Hardly, though one could see how an elementary intellect might interpret the Futurists as such.

Leon laughed, returning Mordecai's smile with an amused one of his own. Despite the lengthy response, he latched only onto its tail-end.

"Do you really?" he raised his eyebrows. "I imagine it is appealing to some. I am myself determined to keep to the reality of things, burden though it may be. You can't live on ideals and even terrorists are flesh and blood."

Anti-futurism was common talk on Three - Hollingbury was mild compared to the shit he heard out of the mouths of Obliviators, who saw more on the ground than office rats higher up.

"Forgive them my Lord, for they know not what they do... you think that's it?" Leon mused, thoughtful. "Not a biblical man myself. I like the God of old testament. Got a bit of zing to him."

"If I did believe in living such a life, I wouldn't be in the Ministry," Mordecai answered politely but bluntly, despite knowing that the question was possibly rhetorical, "but there are plenty of those who do believe as such and carry their dangerous perceptions into the administration - that is reality, after all."

He left the implications of the words hanging. It was up to how Halloran wished to see it.

"I do not care of those who try to justify felonious actions, only that they acted. In the eyes of the law the consequences trumps their ideology." He glanced back at Halloran.

"Do you have any opinions on how they knew the structure of the anti-muggle barrier to target its foundation rather than the more commonly selected sides for spectacle and statement? Those barriers are not the same kind we use for civilian buildings, given that they must hide great magical beasts as well."

Oh, he was too easy. Leon's smile broadened slightly - though his smiles were not pleasant things. The stick up Hollingbury's behind was so ramrod straight it wasn't anything to bait him into a prim spiel about principles.

"Isn't it obvious?" the Head Obliviator tilted his head to the side and gave the other wizard a puzzled look. "We have an insider. I'm sure Pratt's on the case, nothing gets by the D-M-L-E."

He enunciated the letters with mocking respect, laughing a bit. His laugh was also not pleasant. "Don't you worry, old man..." Leon patted the ward bed with unconvincing reassurance. "We aren't asleep at the wheel on Three, either."

As far as the Ministry was concerned, Leon was far from likeable but he'd played himself straight as can be since Halloween all those years ago. Not as straight as Mord, of course, but even rulers lacked in Hollingbury's presence.

"We'll get our man - or, excuse me, woman -" he clarified without heat, "- and string them up just so for the Wizengamot."

Mordecai's gaze at him remained impassive.

"Of course," he said softly, "it's always the Ministry. Hasn't failed to disappoint us for two decades now, has it? Pity that record never gets broken."

He folded his hands into his lap and smiled at Leon. "Would it be too much to expect you to be at the forefront of the arrest of the Futurists then? I would be utterly disappointed otherwise. Anyway, if you're quite finished, I find myself progressively more interested in resting alone. if you wish to speak further, you always have the option of discussing with the Acting Head of Improper Use."

Another disappointment.

Would it be too much to expect...

Leon dipped his head and gestured, a facsimile bow. Now who would possibly risk utterly disappointing the Head of Improper Use? The whole bunch of them on Two thought themselves high and mighty, he was sure, like their opinions counted for something in the real world.

The visiting wizard reached for his cane, which snapped obediently to hand, and rose with what passed for politeness in him.

"Sleep, the best cure, or so I'm told," he made to leave.

But then stopped at the foot of the bed, as though a thought had occurred to him all of a sudden. Leon looked over his shoulder at Hollingbury, another smile twitching at one corner of his mouth.

"You know, I like you Hollingbury..." he indicated at the other man with his cane, a laugh in his voice at some unspoken joke. "You really believe in everything you say. That's not a small thing."

Not even the Minister of Magic could claim otherwise. Leon nodded once. "Enjoy your rest."